From the Díaz Files

Published: September 30, 2012

1. A page from D?'s ''Oscar Wao'' notebook.

2. ''This is an interesting story. It was about a young African-American kid who, messing around in a high-school gym, ends up a paraplegic. He was obsessed with superheroes, martial arts -- this whole comic-book universe. I didn't know how to take Oscar's love of comics, of fantasy, and make it the whole book. This reminded me of how much people can love something like that -- that it can become a life, it can become a universe.''

3. D?'s parents in the Dominican Republic. ''My father's from the part of the country where they're superproud of their cattle. That photograph really spoke of the value system of the Cibao that my father participated in: these real tough characters and their love of bulls, this masculine icon.''

4. D?'s father at work in Elizabeth, N.J.

5. ''This sent me into 'Oscar Wao' -- discovering this photo. That's my dad. My dad was a total pro-Trujillo lunatic. And how happy and normalized this was, you know, to go get your picture taken. And yet that was the uniform of terror. He was so proud of it. He's a baby here, about 19. At his age, I was delivering pool tables and reading Granta. And he could have been torturing people. I handled this again and again and again for 'Oscar Wao.' ''

PHOTOS (PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUNOT DÍAZ; JENS MORTENSEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)